Timber
Sticks and Planes

We have recently been developing our ideas about timber structures in two key areas. The first has been the use of timber composite components. Plywood has been used as a stressed skin material in aircraft since the second world war. Its durability and good thermal properties make it an ideal material for the building envelope, particularly for curved forms where thin sections can be curved and laminated without inducing high stresses before the component is loaded. Also a number of 'beam' components have been developed using glued composites of thin timber 'fibres' which have a greatly enhanced strength over simple glulam components.

The second area of investigation has been the jointing of timber components. Timber is often proposed in new construction because of its 'warm' appearance and because it can be easily shaped into curved or tapering profiles. The problem then arises as to how to join such components. Not only is the structure often disfigured by conventional bolted connections, but it is often found that member sizes are increased so that all of the necessary bolts can be fitted into the connection with the required spacing and edge distances. Our solution to this problem has been to devise systems where metal components of steel or aluminium are bonded to the timber element. This allows a much smoother stress gradient to exist and can often produce connection components that are much more in sympathy with a relatively refined timber structural form. We expect these ideas to increase in popularity and to have a similar impact to the innovation of welding in metal structures.